t with 78 Hashemite cubits, which in different
writers are assigned for the heights of St. Sophia. Each of these cubits
was equal to 27 French inches.]

[Footnote 34: The accurate Thevenot (l. i. c. 15) walked in one hour and
three quarters round two of the sides of the triangle, from the Kiosk
of the Seraglio to the seven towers. D'Anville examines with care,
and receives with confidence, this decisive testimony, which gives a
circumference of ten or twelve miles. The extravagant computation of
Tournefort (Lettre XI) of thirty-tour or thirty miles, without including
Scutari, is a strange departure from his usual character.]

[Footnote 35: The sycae, or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth region, and
were very much embellished by Justinian. It has since borne the names
of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former is obvious; that of
the latter is unknown. See Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 22, and Gyllius de
Byzant. l. iv. c. 10.]

[Footnote 36: One hundred and eleven stadia, which may be translated
into modern Greek miles each of seven stadia, or 660, sometimes only 600
French toises. See D'Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 53.]

[Footnote 37: When the ancient texts, which describe the size of Babylon
and Thebes, are settled, the exaggerations reduced, and the measures
ascertained, we find that those famous cities filled the great but not
incredible circumference of about twenty-five or thirty miles. Compare
D'Anville, Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xxviii. p. 235, with his Description
de l'Egypte, p. 201, 202.]

[Footnote 38: If we divide Constantinople and Paris into equal squares
of 50 French toises, the former contains 850, and the latter 1160, of
those divisions.]

Chapter XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople.--Part II.

The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal monument
of the glories of his reign could employ in the prosecution of that
great work, the wealth, the labor, and all that yet remained of the
genius of obedient millions. Some estimate may be formed of the expense
bestowed with Imperial liberality on the foundation of Constantinople,
by the allowance of about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for
the construction of the walls, the porticos, and the aqueducts. [39] The
forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and the celebrated
quarries of white marble in the little island of Proconnesus, supplied
an inexhaustible stock of materials, ready to be conveyed, by the
con